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Eat, Drink and Be Thrifty: How Much Do You Spend on Food & Dining?

Eating, drinking: they’re as vital a part of our lives as much as a source of entertainment. We eat to live, we eat out to catch up with friends, or simply enjoy the good life. The Food & Dining category is one of the most closely tracked by Mint.com users, many of whom set up budgets for all sorts of spending in the category, from groceries and restaurants to fast food and coffee shops.

So how does your spending on food and dining compare to that of your peers? Using aggregate and anonymized data on Food & Dining spending from Mint.com, we created the video above to highlight some of the most interesting trends we found in Mint’s data, from average transaction at a variety of coffee shops, grocery stores and fast food restaurants, to the time of year when Mint users spend the most — or the least — in those categories.

Among the highlighted findings:

Mint users spend more per transaction at Peet’s Coffee than at Starbucks; and more at Burger King than at McDonald’s. On average, they spend nearly four times as much per month at bars than at coffee shops. And the average grocery bill at Kroger supermarkets is nearly as large as that at Whole Foods.

Want more? Watch the video and let us know: how do those averages compare to your personal spending patterns?